Loving Life

Ahhh, Saturday mornings. I woke up early today after falling asleep in my newly remodeled loft to a beautiful snowfall. I made coffee and went to the school to put my load of laundry in and pack water, then came home to do a few other household chores: sweep, mop, do the dishes, empty the incinolet, take out the trash, and straighten up. I love it all, except for the incinolet job. I love staying busy and love our little house in the middle of nowhere.

Last night we played board games and charades at Paula and Brandi’s house, and afterwards Josh and I were itching to go on an adventure. He is leaving for Seward next week to take a job, so even though it was 10:30 at night, we decided to go for a hike. We suited up in our winter gear and strapped on our headlamps and started walking in the waist-deep snow out past the airport. He is a really knowledgeable outdoorsman, especially when it comes to animals. We tracked animal prints and hunted their hide outs, laid in the snow and star-gazed, rolled down hills, dug snow pits and buried ourselves in them... you know, the usual stuff. :) We came back around 12:30 am. I went out with him a few weeks ago to check his traps, and although he didn’t have any animals that time, he has caught several muskrats. He showed me how to skin them and that was a fun learning process.

I am planning on visiting Josh and Emily over the summer when I come back next year, and we are stoked about it - you can just walk outside and climb a mountain or hop in a kayak and paddle down a river, set up camp, catch a salmon and cook it over a fire... we were just talking about how perfect that kind of life is and how lucky we are to get to experience this whole Alaskan adventure. I’m also planning on coming back to Bethel earlier with Matt and kayaking and camping along the way from Bethel to Newtok. I hope that will happen - seriously, how cool would that be!? It would also save me a plane ticket. I made all my flights for the holidays, and the total cost of getting to Texas and back to the village is $2,600. Is that crazy or what? But it is worth every penny to see my family for a few weeks over the holidays and take a break from the village life to enjoy the pleasures of normal civilization.

We had a late start on winter, but it changed in the snap of a finger last Wednesday, dropping down to negative 20 with windchill and negative 30 the next day. I went out to take some pictures of the gorgeous sunset and steamy river, and for the sake of a good picture suffered mild frostbite on my fingers. I can’t tell you how many times that happens!

So I mentioned the loft... In my bedroom there is a loft that has been out of reach, and while Matt was over one day working out, he said it would be cool to have that as a reading/hang out area... and I couldn’t believe I’ve never thought of that before! So I ordered a ladder from Amazon and some other goodies and set to work cleaning it up, painting, and turning it into a really cool place. When all the materials get here I will take pictures and post them on facebook.

Only three more weeks until I fly back - looking forward to it, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!